The Swiss-Ukrainian Decentralization Support Project in Ukraine - DESPRO has initiated a competition among the regional mass media in five oblasts of Ukraine for the best publications devoted to highlighting the practical experience of self-organization and effective solution of problems of rural communities in the region. The competition was presented on 3 June 2011 in the office of the news agency "Ukrainian News".

Oksana Garnets, Project Manager for the Swiss-Ukrainian Decentralization Support Project in Ukraine – DESPRO, described the project experience in the area of water supply. For 3 years of the its activities, DESPRO Project together with local communities have implemented 40 successful projects in 33 settlements (towns) by taking advantage of the European experience and management techniques in the Ukrainian context, which is not always a favourable one.

Olena Sas, PR specialist, noted in her opening speech that the goal of the Competition is to encourage journalists to write about positive social events and phenomena of citizens’ self-organization. Content of the plots in the competition should consist of successful examples of how rural communities, without outside help (or with support of the power), are successful in solving particular existing problems and in improving the quality of life of local population. "The idea of this Competition is very crucial for our press, which overload with criminal, political battles and disasters is quite evident. The same is true about the advertising and entertainment content. Instead, there is a need for quality news topics that would cover positive examples of solving the problems in various areas of our life and that would provide their effective solution algorithm, "- accentuated Olena Sas.

Olena Lokshyna, DESPRO Expert, told the journalists about the peculiarities of compiling the book "Best Practice". She made a special emphasis on the methods of data classification and on various approaches for describing successful examples of citizens’ self-organization. "When we describe a particular case, it is important to base upon updated data, because quite often people exaggerate or simply "round off" the shares of co-financing and other numbers", - said Olena Lokshyna. The triumphal experience of DESPRO Project experts will be of use to journalists who will take part in the Competition “Uniting the Community”.

As a result, the roundtable turned into a lively discussion where each representative from the regions was able to voice his/her own opinion and ask any questions.

The event was attended by representatives of regional mass media from five oblasts of Ukraine.
Additional information:

The Publications competition will be held in June-November 2011 and will cover the regional mass media in Dnipropetrovsk, Sumy, Vinnytsia, Ivano-Frankivsk oblasts of Ukraine and the mass media of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea.

One can find more information about the provisions of this competition using the following link:
http://despro.org.ua/knowledge-management/library/despro-publications/